Seven weeks after its release, Watchmen’s legs have all but buckled. For the weekend just gone, the film brought home $199,114. That makes for a total take of $106,848,750 in America. It’s the 358th most successful film of all time in the US, and in 357th is Batman & Robin.

Overseas, things haven’t been as bright as hoped for either. The current international take for the film currently sits at $74,207,581, for a total worldwide gross of $181,103,123. For the sake of comparison, Batman & Robin drew over $130m overseas, for a total of $238m. We estimated, and we thought conservatively, that Watchmen would get to around $150m in the US, but it seems fairly clear now that it won’t even make it to $110m.

Out of Watchmen’s receipts has to come the exhibitors’ revenues, marketing costs, distribution expenses and such like. And then there’s the film’s budget, with the most conservative suggesting that it cost $120m to bring the film to the screen in the first place.

Off the back of box office returns such as Watchmen’s, it’s perhaps unsurprising that we’re not going to be seeing a mass market R-rated comic book movie for a long time to come. [DenofGeek via fark]

Sad. But maybe the execs will be circumspect, and realize it wasn’t the tone or the rating that was to blame, maybe it was just unrealistic to think a cult graphic novel would compete with a movie about comic-book superheroes that have been around for 50 years. Ha, just kidding. Of course they won’t. They’ll just think “See? I told you we should’ve cast a Black-Eyed Pea.”

Join The Discussion

Hey, all they had to do was show a guy fucking selling hot Rolexes from the inside flap of an overcoat. The rest would have worked itself out.

04.27.09 at 1:11 pm

Burnsy

Don’t worry, everybody! I’m finally going to see it this week, bringing the total to $106,848,758.

04.27.09 at 1:23 pm

Stone Soup

I am hereby dubbing the repetitive theme of financially failed movies with artistic integrity as victims of “The Olive Garden Syndrome.” At any given time, there is a 2 hour wait to get into a friggin Olive Garden so you can eat a mediocre plate of fake Italian food served to you by a high school kid saving money to buy a wicked skate board. Meanwhile, down the street, three tiny, first-generation operated Italian restaurants sit empty.

04.27.09 at 1:28 pm

nominus

To think, all this could have been avoided had they casted Chris O’Donnell in the movie, and in turn, didn’t even make it.

04.27.09 at 1:34 pm

FistfulOAwesome

America has spoken: It would rather have Ahnuld’s blue genitals shining at its face than Billy Crudup’s.

04.27.09 at 1:44 pm

Stinky Peet

Maybe they should have advertised it a bit more.

04.27.09 at 1:50 pm

Donkey Hodey

I think this means they can finally kill of Jack Slater.

04.27.09 at 2:00 pm

The Kurgan

I think this is getting ready to play at the $1 movies bear my place. does that revenue still count?

04.27.09 at 2:15 pm

Al

Maybe there just aren’t enough openly admitted comic book nerds clinging to what’s left of their pathetic misspent youth who care or even have the money to see this movie (which is far more obscure than, for example, the likes of Batman or Spiderman) over and over again, regardless of how well it was produced? Just my jaded, logical two cents of the day.

Ask me how my day’s going and prepare to follow your own head out the door.

04.27.09 at 2:19 pm

Al

And it’s been such a day so far that I didn’t even bother to finish reading the post to know I sorta stepped on Vance’s dick. I think I summarized it much more succinctly than him, though.

04.27.09 at 4:31 pm

max power

There’s two problems to the Watchmen. 1) The people they were really counting on tend to watch movies illegally than pay money to see the movie. 2) The movie, all movies, are still being shot in standard depth. WHy the hell anyone goes to the theaters to watch a movie in standard depth when you can watch in high depth/blue ray at home is ridiculous.